Just Friends
by Uru Baen
Summary: Ideas come from the wierdest places... There's a pairing, but don't be so sure you know what it is! Rating for safety.


Just Friends

A/N: I'm angling to make this either a very high 80 thousand word story, or an 100,000 word one if possible.

Ch. 1: The Beginning

Danny was bullying the Box Ghost. This may not sound so accurate, but you must remember that the Box Ghost is a bit of an idiot. The Box Ghost, however, tried a new tactic. He surrendered. Danny had actually been ready to hit him with another ghost ray, when they both floated down to a bench at the Nasty Burger. One of the perks of saving the town, and now being thought a hero, is that he was now able to bring some ghost friends over without being harassed, once he explained about said ghosts. He was actually down for a book deal with a… pardon the phrase… ghost writer. The Box ghost started.

"I, the BOX GHOST, am ready to surrender. You have beaten me a thousand times, ghost boy… I now swear my loyalty to you. Together, we will RULE THE WORLD!"

"It's awesome that I don't have to worry about you anymore, but, what's with the whole 'surrender' thing? And I don't want to rule the world!"

"The surrender is an official ghost rule: If you defeat a ghost a thousand times, they become yours. Most ghosts never make it to a thousand: They make peace or stay away after a few hundred."

Danny thought about this, and the other ghosts he's fought. He realized that Skulker must've been beaten by Vlad a thousand times… And Danny realized that he'd defeated several ghosts many times… From now on, he promised himself that he'd keep better track of it, and he would include it in his book. His book was about the ghost kingdom, and about the nature of ghosts, and ghostly powers. He didn't include, however, his Ghostly Wail- that he would keep secret, just in case. He had since mastered the teleportation, and cloning techniques, and Jazz had modified the Fenton Peeler into a simple ring…that, when it detected ectoplasmic discharge within five meters, it would form into the full Peeler. Tucker had the Ghost Gauntlets, and Sam… well, Sam had recently taken up magic.

What, you thought ghosts could be real and magic couldn't? Please. Sam's magic sprang from her genetic dissimilarity; the dominant gene for black hair and violet eyes had materialized out of nowhere in her, just like in her grandmother. Anyway, her specialties were draining and conjuring. Her draining powers could funnel the powers out of, and into, a ghost, or anything else. This meant that few could stand up to their combined power, but rarely did anyone get in range for them to pummel. Most of the time, it was just Danny, but they trained in case anyone ever attacked the town again. Most notably Vlad, Pariah, and Dan. A possible team-up would be the worst scenario imaginable.

Danny had later realized that Dan must still exist, because he hadn't found the thermos containing him. He was also working on finding a good place to practice trying the portal powers, and maintaining the Ghostly Wail. He was determined to find Clockwork, one of these days, but didn't know where to look. He decided to get some help. Also, to help set up the future, he made a request of the Box Ghost.

"Box Ghost, I have two missions for you. One: Gain knowledge about the ghost "Clockwork", and two: Infiltrate the home of the Lunch Lady Ghost. Get to know her. Do both at the same time if possible. If not, the first takes priority." He saw the necessity of maintaining _some_ integrity of the time line, so he was trying to make Box Lunch come true.

After that, he looked again at his C.A.T. letter… On a score of 1900, he got a 1680. It's pretty good, especially considering the occasional interruptions, but Jazz had taken his six at that point, and taken all the ghost jobs that she could handle. That left him with Vlad. After careful consideration, he changed his choice of career. He could already fly, and, in that same state, he required no air- he was already space worthy… Why waste his life trying to become something he could already be? So he decided to become a lawyer- when he set up, he'd get free time whenever he needed it, he could exercise his keen sense of justice, and he could use his perceptive skills gleaned from work with ghosts, and his wit to find loopholes when need be.

Plus, with the "ghost army" he'd soon collect, his ghost fights would become less and less, easier and easier. Now there were only really two areas he had to worry about when it comes to his future: His social life and his love life. He hoped that the two were connected; once he found a way to get to Paulina, he'd be cool. He really only saw one option when it came to that; reveal that he was Danny Phantom… But he was afraid that she would tell because he doesn't trust her, and he won't trust her until they're together… A catch-22, if you will.

Meanwhile, in the ghost zone, the Box Ghost was about to enter the kitchen of the Lunch Lady ghost. He suddenly saw a blue clock in front of him. He was too dull to connect the two, but he was smart enough to shy away from it. An old man emerged from the portal, motioning for him to follow. He reluctantly obeyed; after all, he was used to following orders. Everyone was his superior. When he emerged, he was in a citadel of awing proportions. The old man was now in the prime of his life, and spoke as if reading off a fact sheet. Box Ghost noticed that his human self was on the screen. The pictures changed as he spoke

"Monroe Smith. Age of death: Five. Alias: The Box Ghost. Power level: Full Body Blue. Bio: Monroe Smith was a bright, and well meaning child, who was often abandoned by his mother in the warehouse where she worked. Died when he starved under a pile of boxes in an abandoned corner of the warehouse, where he was trying to build a home for himself. Mother went on to write a bestselling book." He converted to a baby, and waved his staff. A middle aged, frumpy woman with a hairy mole appeared on the screen.

"Melissa Donavan. Age of death: Fifty-Five. Alias: The Lunch Lady Ghost. Power level: Full Body, alternating Green and Blue. Bio: Grew up a cheerleader with no plans for her future; ended up back at Casper high, bitter and alone. Never changed the menu her whole life. Died of a heart attack from overeating meat." He went back to an old man, and continued, "I assume you are the former?" At a loss for words, Monroe nodded. Clockwork continued. "Your master has caught wind of the time stream, and predictably, has attempted to continue it as it ought to be, due to his natural inclination toward magnanimity. Unfortunately, by doing so, he has upset the natural balance thereof. So I must give you an alternate route to your eventual…glory."

He shifted back again, and continued, "I will need to train you; make your powers into what they need to be. Also, your sparring partner will be Melissa. The Lunch Lady Ghost."

And, back at the office, the status quo was being maintained… well, mostly. Danny was lusting after Paulina, and Sam was mad at him about it. Tucker was nowhere to be found, however. He was actually spending some time with Valerie, in a very sneaky sort of plot that the two had formed. They were going to try to get Danny and Sam together. Sam was about to admit it during the siege of Amity, but then Pariah had interrupted. She was about to admit it in a much lesser form after the C.A.T., but had remembered that Tucker was there. And that's when the plot was formed.

Since, they had let a few, key others in on the plan, including Paulina herself, and Dash. They knew that the group together could, gently, influence the two into bonding together. It would, however involve something that they did not know how to do yet- getting Paulina and Danny to associate without either one seem out of character. Then, Sam would grow insanely jealous, her boyfriend and Paulina would "discover" each other, and, during the heated air, the two would admit their love.

But they failed to take a few things into account:

1. Murphy's law stating "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong."

2. O'Toole's corollary stating that Murphy was an optimist.

3. The best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray.

So, given that the majority of human history was against it, I would say that they were barking up the wrong tree. But then again, what do I know? I am merely a scribe… Anyway, Danny one day had a spark of an idea- He reasoned it out to Tucker… "Now… What if I approach her as Danny Phantom- I mean, she loves him, and he's now accepted by most of the town. If you can keep your girlfriend on a leash long enough for me to ask her out, then I'll at least have a half victory."

"Girlfriend… I wish, Danny. I'm just helping her with a school problem." Danny, ever inquisitive, said, "What kind of project, Friar Tuck?"…Given the circumstances, Tucker threw together some technojargon.

"I am helping her cross-reference mutation strings into a rotation IP assignment system to help modify the systemwide TCP/IP protocol to accept new logarithms of programming, including a hex/assembler cross language for the hard code." As expected, Danny was a deer in the headlights. If you actually understood that, then there is no hope for you to fit in with normal society.

"Okay, Tuck… I'm just going to ignore that, and get on with my math homework." He, as a 10th grader, was working on his Geometry. "These conjectures are giving me a headache. I got constructions alright, but these parallelograms, and trapezoids are downright confusing. Transversal of a who? A-what-what conjecture? We could sure do with some of those Cram- what were they? Anyway, I need one bad."

That particular day ended with one person in silent tears, one oblivious, and one scheming. And, as is typical, Jazz saw it all. When the last bell rang, Danny hid in the bathroom, and went ghost. Due to some of his more atypical adventures, he knew Paulina's address, and flew there as the crow flies, but at a somewhat slower pace than normal, due to his pondering what he knew of her.

_Let's evaluate the situation logically, Danny boy:_

_You're finally accepted by the town, and Paulina has a crush on your ghost half, and you've finally realized that you can leverage on both of these things to at least develop some sort of relationship with her. But there are some bad points: What if you slip, and she discovers your true identity? What if you get caught up in the limelight, or try to talk to her during the day, or forget your form? If your friends leave you, could you bear it? What if Valerie discovers your identity? Could you segue into telling her your true identity? Could you trust her to keep your secret? Could you tell your parents? Could you trust them? What would they do? Would they think me evil?_

As he was pondering these ponderous obstacles, he did not notice a young, ethereal African American young man standing near him. As he concluded his thought "I guess time will tell", he bumped into the young man, and looked up, hands glowing, and let out a sigh of relief, and let the energy pass. He said, "What ho, brave ghost, lieutenant to the Guard of the Human Realm?" He managed to hold his face serious for about a minute, during a tense pause, and then broke out laughing. "I'm just kidding, Boxy… What's up?"

The Box Ghost grinned in turn, and said "I have begun the search for this mysterious 'Clock Work' that you have requested, and have begun to befriend the Lunch Lady. I have discovered some likely leads, but nothing yet Sir. I have also begun practicing my Box Powers, in the hopes that I might be able to defend myself." Danny nodded. "Carry on."

This was a lie that Clockwork fed to him, in order to keep the intended/real time flow together; it would've happened at this time, and he had given a list of "Discoveries" and "reveals" of his powers. He was able to form a pale blue box for a second in his hand, and was currently working on maintaining it. He had discovered that the colors of powers were determined by the strength and alignment, and the hierarchy was: Ethereal Pale blue, Solid pale blue, Green, and finally Dark, Solid blue, for Good/Neutral powers. Purple for some of the more tortured souls was also typical, and was right between Green and Dark Blue. For Evil, it began with pale red, and went up to pale purple, to dark purple, and lastly to dark red. Only Pariah has ever had dark red. Dark Danny had Green because it was that at the core; the human 'taint' had given him the advantage of quickly learning powers, but had also limited the overall strength.

Anyway, Danny flew onward, somersaulting and landing gracefully in Paulina's living room. He said to her normally imposing father, "Relax, dude, I'm just here to talk to Paulina." Mr. Sanchez seemed a bit put off, but started his normal 'talk' to boys who got into his house.

"Now, young man, let's talk about my daughter. I have seen her room when she thought I wasn't looking, and she has posters of you everywhere. Now, I'm fine with you two casually dating, but you take advantage of her crush, and I will personally rip you in half. Even if I must go begging to the Fentons to do it."

"Well, of course I won't take advantage of her. I mean, what kind of person do you take me for? I always, I repeat, always use my powers for good. Do you think that particular doctrine ends at 5?" And as he talked, the burly man opposite him looked more and more like he'd swallowed a live slug and was now regretting it, but he did nod, looking sallow.

Just then, Paulina waltzed down the stairs. To some, this may sound like an exaggeration, but no, she literally waltzed. In mid-spin, she stopped, as though a hammer struck her, realizing who was in her living room. She rushed up and death-grip hugged him. She pulled away only when her father put a hand on her shoulder, a signal to pull away. Danny was momentarily stunned, but then plunged right into the lion's den."

"Paulina… I was just wondering if you wanted to go to the movies this Friday, say, six? I'm buying." She was too busy giggling with happiness to respond. Her father finished for her, "I'm no master in my daughter's ways, but I feel secure in saying that's a yes, Mr. Phantom" Danny flinched at the name, and said, "I would prefer it if you just called me Danny. I don't really have the time to explain, but the name Phantom brings back some… very unpleasant memories. I can tell you this, though: It involves a time traveling ghost, an alternate universe, and me dueling myself." He saw Mr. Sanchez freeze in mid sentence. Danny smiled and said, "Speak of the devil" before seeing the old man materialize from the clock behind him.

"Young Phantom… You need to remember, if you tell anyone about what happened, it might leak back to the one or two sources deranged enough to want to cause it to happen. But I am happy to see that you are embracing both of your forms. I just wanted to say, that you've been doing an excellent job with your new… apprentice. He's been trying to find me. I think I will let him in, oh, say a month. Until then, remember my words."

He realized that the clock was ticking down, and that this was his time to escape. He vanished from the house, and flew wholeheartedly back home, where he knew his apprentice, as Clockwork called him, would be waiting. The Fenton Portal was just opening, and Danny smiled.

"Welcome home. Anything new?"

"No sir… Except the lunch lady ghost has invited me over to her house this Friday for lunch. I assumed that this would be the best way to get to know her."

Danny smiled, and the days blurred. Clockwork trained the Box Ghost, and he returned progressively less subtle hints on where the Time Fortress was. About a month had passed, the Box Ghost reported a scrap of paper that suddenly appeared from nowhere. It turned out to be a page from a very old tome, reading,

_To he who would find_

_The Ghost of Father Time_

_I beseech thee, listen to my rhyme_

_An Isosceles triangle there be_

_From Fear's fortress to Musics Free_

_And the perpendicular bisector shall lead_

_To the place where shall come Evil's primordial Seed_

_And there the next prophecy ith_

Now, had Danny paid attention, he would've realized that this was from geometry, and his map of the ghost zone would've helped him greatly. He bitterly floated home, and turned human just as his father went down into the lab. He walked down, with the air of a baby who's taken his first step, and saw Danny.

"Danny! Just the boy I was looking for! Look at my new invention! The Ghost Grill! It grills spectral energy out of food, and the metal part can be used as a mini- Fenton Catcher!" Danny knew his father was particularly sensitive, so he smiled and complimented him, while privately believing that that was almost as stupid as the thing that made ghost-possessed hot dogs. And as he thought that, another desired them, an eternity away.

"Guard! Guard! Why am I being kept in this blasted place? It reeks, there's no food, and I can't sleep." As usual, prisoner 8675309, one Vlad, was complaining. He was kept in an ecto-hole, that is, a "dead zone" of the ghost zone. He was able to transform once a day, when they let all the prisoners roam under a ghost shield and stretch their collective legs. The story of Vlad's capture is also the story of how Sam came to learn magic. And how he learned of what happened to Danny… Or rather, what hadn't happened.

It was shortly after the C.A.T. results came back, and Vlad was wondering what had happened- his spies had shown that the Nasty Burger was semi-exploded… It looked like it would explode fully for a while, but then, eventually, Danny had come back and put it right… Funny. Vlad was expecting more. He kept a note in his Plasmius Log. To give an example of what he'd written:

_I was bitterly disappointed; that tomfool, or rather, jackfool, has now defeated me thrice. I now have the suit, Skulker, and the Fright Knight, so things shall change. To recount the defeats: Once he played my small list of weaknesses, including my fear of being revealed, and the thought of losing my true love, once his old man took his goofy gloves and whipped me into submission, and this last time… wait…there **was** no last time. I seem to have some sort of déjà vu, but no matter…this will make it so that neither of those poor fools can ever even touch me again. _

Then he had formulated a plan; kidnap Sam, who Danny clearly had feelings for. He would've preferred to wait for the suit, but it's not like Danny could defeat him, right? So one night the Knight found himself outside of the Manson Mansion. He waited until Sam was asleep. He stole her from her bed, and wrapped her up, landing her at the feet of Plasmius. He locked her up inside a small room. For fun, he filled the room with a slight amnesiac gas compound. He laced a tray of food and a bit of water with it as well. The room also had a bookshelf and a coffee machine. If all went well, she wouldn't be too much trouble to keep.

He decided to have a meet and greet with the young prisoner the next morning… see exactly how strong it was… He entered into the room and she yawned, stretching and scratching her hair. She was checking out some of the books, especially some of the older tomes that her captor had copied as a test, to see whether residual memories would stay. Vlad started with as unassuming a statement as he could make, the same one he made to Daniel when he'd been knocked out.

"Hello there little angel. You gave us quite a scare there. "

"Not to be rude, or anything, but who are you? And who am I, for that matter? Where am I?"

"Oh, dear, that's normal after what happened to you." He tried to put his hand on her shoulder, but a blue field shimmered into life around his hand, the same color as the pendent on her necklace- a crystalline, sky blue. Strangely, Vlad detected no ectoplasmic signature emanating from the device. "You were… assaulted by a group of villains. They were trying to kidnap you for the ransom money, and security and I managed to beat them back, but not before they'd captured you. They dropped you in their haste to get away. You were in a coma for five months. It should be coming back to you by now, or at least by the end of the day." This much was true, as he had the Fright Knight preparing himself to possess the young woman, and 'inject' the memories.

"So… you're my father? And you're rich?" Vlad admitted to himself that the girl was remarkably quick on the uptake, and confirmed her statement, and added, "I became that way through some stable investments when I myself was hospitalized- when I got out, I used the profit to buy another company, one with much potential. I led it to crush all competition." This was, more or less, how the real story went, albeit with significantly more thievery involved, and kidnapping, etc.

"Cool… Yeah, I seem to remember you… What about my mother?" He noticeably winced, and began, somewhat hesitantly, "Two months after you were born, complications from the birth put her into her own coma… She was already a hemophiliac… Her internal bleeding left her dying in the worst way possible. Doctors searched high and low for the burst vessel, but it was of no use. Our families are under a sort of curse; dying young and being extremely successful. They say it began when we left the Steppes, ages ago." His eyes began to water over… well, he was a drama major… and he was the Valedictorian of his year.

Sam began to cry… but her heart gave a lurch once she saw the young man come in from the walls… like magic… and he was the **_hottest_** guy she'd ever seen. His slightly messy hair added to the slight lines of toning that were beginning to appear were the main points… The glow, tan skin, and skintight jumpsuit didn't hurt either. She was already beginning to imagine him and her when her caretaker snarled and leapt on the boy. She felt like her heart was torn for the second time in so many minutes. She grabbed the necklace, and wished that the battle would stop. Amazingly, cages appeared around the two combatants and separated them. She noticed a similar glow around the book she'd been studying- _The Majickes Manual_. She'd idly flipped through the pages, and saw that there was somehow no end to the book. She'd flipped through the pages, but seen it numbered up to a million pages before what seemed to be her caretaker came in.

As all this occurred, the Knight floated in, ready to possess her, but was stopped by the same field. Danny said to her, "Sam? What are you doing? Let me go! Don't make me use my G- you know." And, as though a gate had opened, she remembered. Her cheeks flushed red as she realized her fantasies were about her best friend. As asked, she released the cage around her best friend, but in doing so, released the glow on Vlad. He, in a fury, flew at Danny, and overshadowed him. Their combined human sides were able to keep the evil of Vlad's ghost in check, but, as Danny was completely unable to do anything while fighting the evil, Vlad traipsed about Danny's mindscape, and learned all about the tragic deaths that had driven Danny insane. Sam willed the two apart and Vlad to the Ghost Zone. Beaten, abandoned, and human, he was stolen into Walker's prison.

Since then, they'd trained together. It turned out that his ghostly wail could barely penetrate her amulet's protective field, but it left him human, and her powers couldn't penetrate his defensive curl. The Knight had vanished into thin air, but was captured attempting to revive his master, by one Phantom. Turns out Vlad had knowledge of that particular plan, and had left the memory of it behind when he was yanked out of Danny's mindscape. All Danny had to do was pull out the Ghostly Wail, and the Knight was knocked right out. The Sarcophagus was transported to the prison as well, and it was kept in the same cell as Vlad, owing to the fact that his recent escape. Tucker, for want of something to do, helped Danny's parents build inventions, and learned to use them. He promised to them to take them out and field test them whenever he saw a ghost, given the number of recent arrivals, that seemed likely, and it was a small price to pay for his insight. And thus we come to the story of his escape.

Finally, Vlad had remembered the thing he'd kept in his pocket- the Skeleton Key. He took the stupider road and kept the Crown, also in his pocket. He opened the Sarcophagus. Pariah stepped out, and, for a moment, Vlad recoiled in shock. For before him stood the mortal form of the immortal Ghost Dictator- for that he was, never a king. It turned out that the Pariah Dark, in life, was an unassuming Caucasian, somewhat scruffy. He had lived a normal life, but had been struck by a comet. That comet had a burst of ectoplasm to dislodge it from its normal orbital path. Who? Clockwork. Why? Because he'd forseen a future where the human race wiped itself out from massive population overruns, and didn't even get to see Danny Fenton come to life- for he was one of the few, a spot in time that life itself hinged on. A focal point. He'd already done much- undone the existence of the most evil ghost ever, developed the most powerful power ever, made a town aware and accepting of Ghosts- but he still had a few tricks up his sleeve.

Pariah recognized the human before him, but also his own lack of powers. Vlad remembered the artifact in his pocket at last, and humbly gave it up. For, overpowering even an ecto-hole, was Pariah's strength. His strength slowly shimmered back into life, as a pale blue at first, then coalescing into a light red. Pariah summoned all of his strength, and invoked a black ritual he could only do when he had both the ring and crown, and created a mushroom cloud of ectoplasm that destroyed the jail and the hole. The two proceeded to talk. They had much to discuss. A forgotten Knight lay behind. He was knocked out, his strength almost entirely dissipated from the blast… He barely held together. He vowed eternal revenge on his ex-master.

Meanwhile, Danny was beginning to watch a movie. He was very tired, having flown the ecto suit home, and having left it in the basement, along with a cock-and-bull story about Vlad sending a letter about finding it, and Danny going to pick it up. It was a rather dishwater movie overall, but then again, he was too tired to train, and he didn't want his sister to psychoanalyze him. He couldn't remember the name of the movie, but he was fairly certain it was from the 80's, given the cheesy "guy gets girl in odd place in odd way" motif it had. He didn't recall seeing it before, and was somewhat bored, and began sketching about Paulina… There were some striking similarities between the movie and real life- the protagonists were both losers, whose main worry was how to get the girl.

He'd continued his social life with Ms. Sanchez as Phantom, but wouldn't dream of approaching her as Fenton. He hoped that he'd somehow find a way to get to her, to make her realize who he really was, and how much better he was than those shallow meatheads that she called friends. Meanwhile, the movie was approaching the middle of the action- the protagonist wrote a letter to the girl he wanted, a very unassuming one at that… Merely requesting some work for him to do, because… well, Danny didn't catch the motivation that he recorded. But eventually, the girl had come to accept him as who he was, and the two became friends. A lightbulb sprang on in Danny's head…

_That's what I'll do… I'll write her a letter! I'll ask to carry her books, or something!_ Exhausted completely by this last new idea, he fell asleep.


End file.
